The 3rd World Rocker

I feel so bad, I haven’t written much during this month. Mostly because nothing much has happened really, maybe I should get on the road again so I could write in more frequently =).

Most of you have heard by now about the news in February, if you haven’t, then your probably in for a surprise, hehehe!! Everything is almost set, things should be finalized in a couple of weeks Insha Allah (God Willing)

The past few days I’ve been watching a LOT of movies, not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I’ve been catching up on all the flicks that I’ve wanted to see and never got a chance. I just finished “A Beautiful Mind”, wow, that was awesome. In a way kind of makes me glad that I’m not genius.
Surprisingly I enjoyed “Sideways” & “Little Miss Sunshine” as well. I’ve just been raiding the DVD library we have here, it fun =).
Speaking of movies, I just saw “The Spirit” with John. With out spoiling anything, you should prepare yourself for a comedy. This is not “Sin City” and sure as hell isn’t “300″. So don’t get your hopes up. Take some friends, and I’m sure each one of you will have a favorite quote to use after the movie is done =)

One thing I’ve been thinking of is making a list of all the things I’ve wanted to do in the city and never got a chance to do them…then do them.
Another thing that popped into my head today, is to be a bit more active in 2009 with my music. I practically have no excuse now, I’ve gotten my degree, and will have time to both practice and get more out there, which is why I want to move back in the city, its a good inspiration for me.

In a few days it would be the “resolution” day =). It sounds crazy, but I actually DID fulfill my 2008 new year’s resolution, which was “to get my Bachelors, and to at least have visited California”, and I managed to do both.
In 2009, I want my resolution, to be musical. I’m not crazy enough to say “win a WAMMI”, I haven’t been THAT good, but I want to at least keep up with it. I think my 2009 resolution, will be to “enter more singer/songwriter contests”, that could be my way to a WAMMI. Either that or to my name on the list of names to visit the Space Station =)

I think I have my “You Never Answer” song memorized now, wohoo. I’ve been playing it for the past few days, nurturing the song until I find a final “sound” for it.

Another thing I’ve been thinking of, music theory. I have been told that learning music theory, might actually help me more than taking guitar classes. Hmm, I will have to investigate that topic further before I decided which one I should go with.

Alright, those are my thoughts for now.
I wish you all had a joyful holiday, and if I don’t write before then..Happy 2009 =)

Salaam.

So as you all know, I’m working part time. Still am.
But because of that I’ve started to have a lot of free time, it drives me nuts, but I’m trying to cope with it. I’m reading a bit less now since I’ve found my entertainment alternative. its called HULU, and it rocks. All you need is an internet connection and some free time. They have movies, TV shows, almost anything up there. There is no downloading, so your watching it online, and the trick they have to make it all legal, they have 30 second commercial breaks, not too many though. On a normal 30 minute show, they would have 3 ads spread out. Its actually not that bad. So I’ve been watching some of my favorite shows up there like “The Pretender” & “Burn Notice”.

As for the reading, I’m almost done with “Blowout”, its taking me a while because I get distracted by HULU and my eReader, I’m reading 2 books on there as well..so I’m in a total of reading 3 books, I keep switching back and forth when ever I get bored with one of them, its odd, I’ve never done anything like this before.

I’ve also found a little unhidden hobby, given that there are so many cafes, and coffee shops in my area, I started rating them, by their Hot Chocolate. You heard right, any time I would go into any of these cafes I would always order a hot chocolate, and depending on how well there HC is, the higher the recommendation they get from me =). I’m like Berkeley’s own little HC reviewer, if only I could get paid for it, or at least get free hot chocolate =).
So far “People’s Cafe” has been on the Top of the list for a while, and they have not one but TWO types of Hot Chocolate.
-hot chocolate & mexican hot chocolate. The MHC has a little spice to it, almost like a Chai that thinks its a hot chocolate, very deleech.

Later today I’m meeting up with Guita & Lucky, so that we can finalize the details of the up coming events we are planning to have at The Muse, it looks like I will be running a weekly “open mic” type gatherings starting Thursdays of 2009, so tonight we are getting everything straightened out so I can start advertising it to all the cool musicians who are interested.

I was hanging out with John Nomad last night, first of he proposed to his girl Jen and she said yes =)
Second, he’s thinking of moving to Hawaii and came up to me saying “would like to move to Hawaii with me and Jen?”…its very tempting really, but you all know me, I would need to have plan A, B & C set up before I can do something like that =).
He keeps telling of how easy it is to get a job there, and cheap places to stay. I heard that argument about coming to Berkeley and it didn’t play out as smoothly as that, so I worry that it will be just as rough if not rougher, but this time, we would be in an island, not knowing anyone, and I would not be able to hitch a ride back to Cali & Bmore, unless there is a hidden bridge between Hawaii & The U.S. that I don’t know about =).
Funny thing is, I was chit chatting with one of my UB professor the other night, and there is a company in Hawaii that is offering him a position to move there. Now that would be the style to get me there, if I am guaranteed a job and at least finding a nice little apartment, then I would start to seriously consider it.
Other than that, I would have to go visit first and see how things are.

Alright, well there you have it.
I should try to get back to work, it seems like a nice slow day today (wohoo), Jut & I might end up working on the A/V Rack, to fix it up a little.

Have a good day my friends.
Salaam

So today I’m feeling much better than yesterday, its very strange really, I woke up very “focused” and “multi-taskable”. Almost robotic.
At work we had the end of semester party, I won this wooden rubix cubic-like puzzle game, now I find out that Tracy Thorn (easily my favorite artiest in the WORLD) is working on a new album, and on my way home I’m going to stop by the Berkeley Computer Center and hopefully pass their Hardware Test and get a part-time job there Insha Allah (god willing).

The weather today is also very nice.
I think it will take me a little while, but hopefully I’ll get over it.

Salaam.

I woke up today not feeling very well, not sick, just feeling very..uneasy. The problem is when ever that happens I start to think of all that I am missing back home.

Sometimes I wonder if I should have had John turn the car around after we’ve made it here. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just having a bad day, you see this is why I don’t like having SO much free time, it really REALLY gets to me, and I don’t like that.

Tomorrow at work we are having an “end of the semester” party, so a whole bunch of the staff will be getting together, eating pizza, and drinking organic soda =)
They are all nice to me, and everything seems to be going fine. I have a hunch on another part time gig that I’m planning to apply for, hopefully that will work out and get me out of this mood I’m in.

I was in San Francisco the other night, I really enjoy being in that city, I don’t know why. I want to go explore it one day during the day, there are so many awesome places to see, and I haven’t been to any of them.

The weather here has been a little chilly, and when ever that happens I automatically think of Maryland, the crisp winter nights when I would fight the cold air and get my self to the open mic and we all huddle inside with warm drinks enjoying the live music.
Or getting out of class with my partners in game crime as we walk cold city streets to our favorite sushi place as we discuss plans for our projects or plan for a movie outing.

I guess I love the east coast more than I thought.
Last year’s resolution was to at least visit California by the end of 2008, and I did.
Hmmm.

So Guita & I have been talking recently on get some activity going at a regular basis here at The Muse, so far what I have is a weekly gathering for musicians to come and play. Further more I’m also thinking of “borrowing” the monthly challenge idea from the Java Mammas Coffee House. I will also make sure to have some kind of broadcast set up. She is very much open to all these ideas and hoping for them to get implemented very soon.
If this works it, it will be great =)

Wish me luck every body.
Salaam

So I’ve gotten word on the whole holiday aspect of things here. The school literally closes from Dec 24th all the way to Jan 4th, which means if I plan this right, I could actually be in the East coast for Christmas.

Many things are happening on the East Coast this year, first I have my cousin’s baby. She is having her first child around December 30th, and the family is planning on being there for her, the second event is the Java Mamma challenge =). I watched the ilyCHANNEL yesterday and saw all 11 contestants, it was really cool, the topic for this month’s challenge is freakin INSANE. “Making sacred spaces out of ordinary places”, phew! I can feel my self using so much energy just SAYING it, holly molly. I don’t have the slightest idea as to what I will even remotely right about.
We shall see.
Other wise, I have uploaded the You Never Answer on my ReverbNation page.

So I’ve started, slowly but surely, with my postgreSQL. I was able to successfully create a database, populate it, and delete things from it. yay.
Now I need to learn a few more manipulating tricks, so far ever entry I do, would be added twice, I think I may have found the answer, but I haven’t tested it yet. I’m very gunge-ho with this one, and I’m pretty excited. I’ve bookmarked the tutorial page, and downloaded the PDF manual, so that way I could still find answers with out the internet. Wish me luck.

Its Friday, and I’m feeling pretty good today. Lucky Otis is trying to figure out how to get Yaki & I up to Sebastopol for the show tonight, he’s making calls and running around like crazy. I warned him from the beginning that I don’t have a car, and he said he will take care of it..alright =).
Even if I don’t make it up there tonight (though Lucky says its not an option) I would still have had an awesome day. Most likely I’ll either end watching some movies, or work on my Database…heheh! I sound so cool saying “work on my Database”, heheheh.

Anyways! I hope you are all having a wonderful Friday, I wish you even more happy happy joy joy for the weekend.
Take care my friends.
Salaam.

So there has been a crazy amount of activity in my life the past couple of days, it almost makes me dizzy =). One of the coolest things is happening back in Baltimore at the end of January. The first ever Global Game Jam, of GGJ as they call it. One of my first adventures in the underground game industry, was something called the Ohio Game Jam, which 3 of my classmates & I went to representing the University of Baltimore. The challenge was to create a working game prototype in 24 hours. We were not very happy with the fact that we came in 2nd place, but we were good mannered about it and came home. Our professor/director of the SDE program at UB, Dr. Harmeyer, was thrilled with us. She would have us talk to her classes, even take us to other events relating to the school’s program, and even to the Graduate Seminar. It was a bigger deal than I thought =).
So NOW, they will be having a GLOBAL version of the Game Jam, and the one being hosted in Maryland is at UB’s Shady Grove campus. This is SO exciting. I’m trying my best to see if I can be part of this. I am kind of pissed that I’m freakin 3 thousand miles away, Aaarrgh! its so frustrating. But hopefully we’ll figure something out. I mean its almost 2009 people.
I even suggested I can join our UB team via the web, we can all log into Skype, or AIM, and I can upload the files needed from me onto a shared FTP site, its totally plausible and I’m MORE than willing to do it. Other wise I could try to join the San Francisco team.

One of my former classmates is actually working on getting his game company started and has been keeping me updated, and he’s already offering me a job to be his Sound Designer =) He is so cool. The problem is, I think he’s planning to start the company on the East Coast, so I hope he doesn’t mind me working remotely =)

Also recently I have been in “learning mode”, its strange. I can understand the whole “wanting to read” phase I was in (which is still very much alive I’m afraid) but now I actually want to use brain cells, I don’t know why. So I’m learning SQL, its a database programming language, and they use it here at UCB, I spoke with Liz, who is one of the SQL gurus there, and she showed a few things, and said she will bring by a book or two for me to look at. Mean while I downloaded the program, found a cool little tutorial and tomorrow I will start working on create a little database on my laptop. I figured the best way to learn this thing is to actually use it. So wish me luck with my “book” database =).

I have been doing a lot of recording lately, especially live performances and what not, so I’m in the market for portable digital recorders, I love my lappy, but sometimes I need something quick and portable, and since SO many shows are popping up, I figured I should invest in a helpful musical gadget, don’t you think.
I’ve also been thinking very much about starting an official website, its still up in the air, I’m not happy with the little skill I have on creating web pages, PLUS, I have no idea what it would be about it. Almost everybody uses their site as a Blog, which kind of makes sense sometimes, …I guess I could have a blog sections, a music section, and all that jazz. I don’t know, I still need to do a little more contemplating on my end on details.

Speaking of websites, I’ve stumbled upon WAMP, which is one of the 3 web development tools, the other two are LAMP & MAMP. No I’m not making this up, here is what they mean:
WAMP: Windows Apache MySQL PHP
LAMP: Linux Apache MySQL PHP
MAMP: Mac Apache MySQL PHP
LAMP is the most famous one at the moment because EVERYTHING in it is free, with the W/MAMP, you need to have the operating system, which is not free. So since I already HAVE Windows, I have been looking into WAMP lately, hopefully my “learning” streak would lead me into it, because I think if I become and entry level WAMP developer, I will be able to create that website I’ve been thinking about, and that would be AWESOME.

So there you have it, all the craziness, that is my life, and all of this, only in the past 2 days. Wow! and I don’t mean the game =)